Improvement in reciprocating steam-engines



Patented June L8, 1872.

SAMUEL SMITH. lmprovemen t in Reciprocating-Engines.

mama:

'tion of the machine.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

SAMUEL SMITH, OF LITTLE ROCK, ARKANSAS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 128,186, dated June 18,1872.

Specification describinganew and Improved Steam-Engine, invented by SAMUEL SMITH, of Little Rock, in the county of Pulaski and State of Arkansas.

The drawing represents a sectional elevation of my improved engine. 1

The object of this invention is, if necessary, to convert the slide-valve of an engine into the working-piston, and thereby to permit the repair or replacing of the main cylinder, piston, or connection without arresting the ac- The invention consists in a novel connection of parts, as hereinafter more fully described.

A in the drawing represents a steam-cylinder of suitable kind, size, and material. B is the piston of the same. a b are its steamports. 0 is the slide-valve, consisting of two disks, 0 d, that are mounted upon a rod, e. These disks move in a cylinder, D, which is parallel with the cylinder A. The rod eis in suitable manner connected with the link motion. E is another smaller cylinder parallel to D, and containing the slide cut-off F, which consists of two disks, f g, on a rod, h, which also connects with the link mechanism. Steampassages i and j, in line respectively with the ports'a I), connect the cylinders D and E, as

shown. G is the steam-pipe leading into the cylinder E between the disks f g.

When the piston 13 is in use the steam admitted to E is first passed through the passagesi and (4, brought above the piston B, and the latter moved down, and then through the passages j I) under the piston, raising the same. It exhausts through valves k kin the cylinder D. When, however, the piston B is to be thrown out of action and the slide 0 used for driving the machine, the passages a, b, i, and j are closed by valves 1 l in them. This shuts the cylinder A entirely out of steam connection, and also the cylinder D between the disks 0 d. Other channels m m, leading from E to the ends of D, are, however, opened and allow the steam from E to act on the piston G as on an ordinary piston, while F is the slide-valve, the exhaust-valves n n being for this case in the cylinder E.

By this arrangement it will be seen that the cylinder A can be thrown out of action, using its slide-valve as a temporary means for keeping the engine in motion.

Having thus described my invention, I claimv as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent The combination of cylinders A D E, having steam-ports, as described, with a piston, B, and pistons O F having slide-valve disks 0 d and f g on their respective rods 0 h, as and for the purpose set forth.

SAMUEL SMITH.

\Vitnesses:

GEO. W. CLARK, H. A. STODDARD. 

